Homeland Security: Redacted alert

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

Updated
10:00 pm PDT, Sunday, April 23, 2006

From the first frightening moments in the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, we knew that transportation systems, such as Washington State Ferries, could be another terrorist target. Less obvious is whether a U.S. Justice Department inspector general's report should be taken as compelling evidence of that risk.

The report ranks Puget Sound ferries with Gulf Coast fuel tankers as the top risk for terrorist maritime mayhem. But unless there is something far more substantive in the blacked-out portions of the redacted version of the report, this alarming ranking rests on flimsy evidence.

The FBI reports 68 of what it calls significant "maritime related incidents" in the Seattle area, including observations that ferries and terminals had been "frequently filmed or photographed in the Seattle area by people acting suspiciously."

There's nothing alarming about taking pictures of ferries; they're tourist attractions, for crying out loud. And just what is "acting suspiciously"?

Of course vigilance is warranted, but not hysteria. Far more devastating targets are offered by the virtually unchecked flow of containers into the port or deadly chemicals transported in rail tanker cars through the heart of the city.

FBI Seattle Special Agent in Charge Laura Laughlin said: "You cannot conclude from the fact that we have a lot of intelligence reporting that we are a No. 1 target."